by Danny Byram | May 11, 2020 | christian worship, church, Church Leadership, Coronavirus, COVID19, Leadership, prayer, Surprise, Worship
On Sunday, January 5, Angela and I heard a new year’s sermon we thought was gutsy, thoughtful, realistic, and now, prophetic. This pastor told his congregation “This year may be the worst year of your life, filled with death, destruction, fear, and mayhem. To tell you ‘happy new year’ may be the most painful thing you could be told.” Yet he spoke of trust in God, that even what could turn out to be your worst year, could be your greatest. Personally, I don’t like sermons that point to victory without embracing hardship. This pastor minced no words. He was honest and mature.
Interesting how little we knew a few months ago, isn’t it? Needless to say, our plans for 2020 have come to a screeching halt. Like you, we are waiting, preparing, praying, and listening.
Last year, I read a book entitled “The Sin Of Certainty” by Peter Enns. In this challenging and often uncomfortable book, Enns says: “When we reach that point where things simply make no sense when our thinking about God and life no longer line up, when any sense of certainty is gone, and when we can find no reason to trust God but we still do, that is what trust looks like at its brightest.”
We see this “trusting-God-when-all-else-fails” throughout Bible stories and church history. (See my blog of March 29.) Yet as 21st century Americans, we shelter ourselves from experiencing hardships that make us “trust God when all else fails.” Sure, there are those who have experienced great personal tragedy: loss of a loved one, a failed business, loss of a job. Yet, so often the American dream and much of our Christian messages morph into figuring out how to put ourselves in a position where “all else fails” doesn’t happen.
Until now.
Never in our lifetime have we experienced anything on the global scale like we are witnessing through the COVID-19 pandemic, and the economic ruin that likely awaits us as we stagger through months of quarantine and sequestering. No one can predict what the results of this parenthetical time will be.
So, here are some questions we must ask ourselves: Will we trust God in sickness, in health, in death as well as in life? Or are we frustrated God is not producing what we want when we want it? Or worse, are we running scared?
As for me, I refuse to offer glib answers and clichés. I simply want to encourage myself and my family to walk the way others before us have walked through plagues, famines, and hardships in life and death. All we can do is trust the living and eternal triune God of the scriptures. In the end, we will see: trusting Him is enough.
I believe our 2020 plans are not for naught. In the meantime, we wait; we trust. We must.
“Come my people, enter into your rooms and close the door behind you. Hide for a little while until indignation runs its course.” Isaiah 26:20
by Danny Byram | Nov 25, 2018 | Advent, Christmas, Church Leadership, Gratitude, Leadership, Surprise, Worship
Do you enjoy surprises? Some love them, others not so much. For example, those of us who are married realized, at some point, we married our opposite. During courtship, engagement, and the honeymoon we are interested in the same activities and respond alike. This “opposite-discovery” is not fully revealed until after a few years of living together. Right? That’s called a “surprise.”
Those who enjoy being surprised prefer the fresh unpredictability surprises brings to life. Surprises remind them that someone was thinking specifically of them in order to pull off the surprise. On the other hand, those who dislike being surprised enjoy the routine of knowing what’s coming. Predictability gives them a feeling of security because the world is ever changing. Receiving a gift tells them the giver had their best interest in mind because the gift was exactly what they asked for.
From Genesis through the New Testament the “God-surprises” are everywhere: The great flood of Noah; Sarah’s birthing her baby boy Isaac in her advanced age; Joseph’s journey from brat-brother to slave to prisoner to second-in-command of Egypt; young Mary’s virgin pregnancy. The list goes on…
As surprising as God’s activities were throughout scripture, He always chose to drop clues as to what He would be up to. Those who were watching and listening were ready for the surprise when it came. Those who chose not to hear or heed the clues were taken completely by surprise.
The biggest surprise in human history is annually celebrated during the season of Advent and Christmas. All the clues for this surprise were given centuries prior through Israel’s prophets. But to those who were not ready and those who are still not ready, this story is the grandest surprise of all time: A baby boy is the Son of God. Surprise! Born in obscurity and poverty. Surprise! A half Jewish monarch threatened by this surprise kills all baby boys two years and under, mimicking the Egyptian Pharaoh at the birth of Moses. Surprise! The gifts left by the Magi would possibly provide sustenance for the holy family as they flee to Egypt to save the boy’s life. Surprise! The boy grows up, becomes the most quoted carpenter-turned-rabbi of all time. Surprise! He willingly offers His life to redeem the world’s sins and invite both Jews and Gentiles of all races, locations and religions to join themselves to God the Father through Him. Surprise! He becomes the only person in history to be seen walking, talking, eating broiled fish, appearing and disappearing in a full fleshly body after he dies. Surprise!
Whether we enjoy surprises or not, the Bible assures its readers God’s surprises will continue. The Old Testament Jews called them prophecies. The Apostle Paul called them “birth pains of what is to come.” (Romans 8:18-25)
Will God’s surprises rock your life? If we are ready, listening and aware, we may not be as surprised as we think.
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